this commitment was expanded by president obama, the congress for the american recovery and reinvestment act which provided funding to begin many of the capitol projects it had been able, to two years of inadequate federal funding, and it is clear that the investments made in amtrak are supported by the traveling public. fiscal year 2012 amtrak achieve the highest ridership levels in history. that is major news, major. more than 31 million passengers took amtrak this fiscal year and the service appears poised to continue to grow. against this record, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle believe amtrak needs to get back on track as the title of this hearing suggests, only because they have once again in doing all they can do to try to get rail to service. in fact republican presidential platform called explicitly for amtrak's elimination. fortunately, that misguided platform was resoundingly rejected by the american people who have instead supported the president's goal to move forward by implementing policies that would expand investments in our nation and support our community e